Tag Archives: Funcom

As mentioned in the stock notice of 10 August 2012, Funcom has initiated a process to reduce operational costs following the launch of its most recent massively multiplayer online game ‘The Secret World’. The process includes several initiatives such as layoffs and temporary layoffs of some employees in Montreal, Durham, Oslo and Beijing.

Some of these initiatives are part of normal procedure following the launch of a major project, such as adjustments to the customer service staffing based on the number of customers in the game as well as adjustments to the production team as the project goes into a post-launch phase following years of intense development. Many of those affected on the customer service team are on temporary contracts which is common for a live service such as ‘The Secret World’ where customer service demand shifts based on the game’s population levels.

Around half of the company’s personnel have been affected, with some departments being more affected than others. To make sure Funcom is in the best possible position to realize its plans for both existing games as well as future projects, the company is focusing on retaining as many as possible on the production teams.

Durham, N.C., USA – May 24, 2012 – Funcom, a world-leading independent developer of online games, is thrilled to announce that it is working closely with NVIDIA for Funcom’s upcoming modern-day massively multiplayer online game ‘The Secret World’.

Funcom’s and NVIDIA’s engineering teams have been working together to make ‘The Secret World’ the most graphically advanced massively multiplayer online game ever to launch on the PC platform. ‘The Secret World’ will feature several cutting-edge DirectX 11 features, such as ground and object tessellation, which makes flat textures appear three-dimensional, thus bringing ordinary objects and surfaces to extraordinarily detailed life. ‘The Secret World’ will also feature full support for NVIDIA 3D Vision® technology for further gaming immersion and increased performance for gamers running dual-GPU configurations utilizing NVIDIA SLI® technology.

NVIDIA will also be launching its online “GPU Analyzer” tool specifically for ‘The Secret World’, which will allow gamers to quickly test their gaming rigs and confirm they have the right hardware for the best possible gaming experience. Funcom and NVIDIA are collaborating on additional virtual events, such as an upcoming Beta Weekend that will potentially allow every registered NVIDIA customer to try out ‘The Secret World’ before launch. With promotion across the NVIDIA.com website, social media channels, newsletters, YouTube and more, Funcom is expecting coverage of the game to exceed more than 100 million impressions.

“We are truly excited to again be working with NVIDIA like we did with our previous title, ‘Age of Conan,’” says Funcom CTO Rui Casais. “By collaborating with NVIDIA engineers, we are making sure we get the absolute most out of our game engine in terms of performance and visual splendor, both of which are tremendously beneficial to anyone playing ‘The Secret World’ with NVIDIA GeForce® GPUs.”

‘The Secret World’ is developed by Funcom and co-published by EA Partners, a division of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA), and is consistently mentioned as one of the most anticipated MMOs in development. Funcom has previously reported that over 1,000,000 gamers are registered for the ongoing beta test for ‘The Secret World’.

Where as I’ve not seen much news on this yet (I’m sure it’s coming) some people whom pre-ordered Age of Conan in order to get into pre- open beta have been, pretty much, told to go to hell.

It’s seems Funcom “over booked” the pre- open Beta. Some some unlucky people have been told: ‘Well sorry you paid up to $100 $150 [Amazon] for a pre-order with access to beta, but we’re not giving it to you. da-da-dadada-daaaaaa’

It’s BS like this that give companies a bad name, and more back lash is sure to come as the Internet picks up the story.

Yesterday, Funcom announced that the sometimes-highly-anticipated Age of Conan has had its release date pushed back to “polish the game further” due to the “level of bugs.” From all that I have heard, this was a very good decision on Funcom’s part. The amount of bugs plaguing the game, as well as things like class balance have all been mentioned before, and from what a lot of people have been saying, this was another needed delay.

It’s nice seeing developers finally owning up and reaching out when it comes to delaying their games. Director Gaute Godager has a profusely apologetic Letter from the Game Directer posted up over at the site, in which he extols on how much this delay actually was needed, and how they promise to spend the time wisely. He also specifically mentions being upset over the way that their beta schedule hasn’t been met as he wanted. Whether or not that means they expected to have open beta by now, who knows. Hopefully they really do manage to spend that extra 8 weeks wisely, get an open beta out and last minute bugs squashed, and make a worthwhile release.

Also announced at Funcom’s recent gathering for Age of Conan fan sites, was that their class list is getting reduced from 12 to 10, with the Lich class skill set getting rolled in the Necromancer, and the Scion of Set is getting rolled into the Tempest of Set class. As much as I hate seeing developers having to do things such as this with their babies, maybe down the road this will end up as a good thing when it comes to getting the game out the door.